December 11, 2006
Morning Roundup: In Remembrance Edition
We start off this Monday morning with the very sad news that Star Foster, a co-editor of sister site Phillyist, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday morning. Phillyist will be going dark for a few days out of respect for Foster, who was with the site since its inception. Here at DCist, and across the -ist network, we offer our condolences and thoughts for her friends and family.
Gallaudet Taps New President: The board of the university announced Sunday afternoon that it would be tapping one of its own to become the school's interim president following the contentious protests that took place on campus. Robert Davila, a recent retiree who's worked at Gallaudet and for the U.S. Department of Education, will start his interim presidency in January.
Surprise Surprise, Money Not Well Spent in D.C.: Neglect, pervasive problems, failure — turns out they're all terms that are applicable to how money is spent here in the District. A study released earlier this month by a city task force reported that "hundreds of millions of dollars were spent without contracts or through no-bid deals," and that violations were not taken seriously. According to the AP article, during the tenure of Deputy Mayor Herbert Tillery, "the amount of purchases spent without proper contracts soared, the report said." Lovely.
And Surprise Surprise, Metro Considers Fare Hike: Facing a $116 million budget shortfall, Metro might have to raise fares and reduce service. Board members say that Metro is considering several options, including a price raise in those traveling during peak rush hours and opening stations at 8 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. on weekends.
Clarendon Aims to Not Totally Suck: I love this sentence in the Post's Sunday article about plans to help Clarendon retain its unique nature: "The Arlington County Board, which voted unanimously for the plan, aims to preserve Clarendon's quirky character while still attracting the kind of development that has brought such retailers as Pottery Barn and the Cheesecake Factory." Because, what? That sentence makes a rip in the fabric of space and time! Anyway, the plan would impose building height limits and create a green space on 10th Street while still trying to keep local businesses. Before the Cheesecake Factory and its freaky mosque decor eats them all.
Briefly Noted: Two dead after plane crash in Anne Arundel ... Car smashes into Silver Spring Popeye's ... NYC school reforms could show up in D.C. ... Adams Morgan tenant-landlord fight continues ...
This Day in DCist: We gave you one of our most controversial Opinionists ever — one on the smoking ban.
Photo by Flickr user Grundlepuck
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As a Clarendon resident, I could complain at length about recent Clarendon development. But I doubt anyone here would want to hear it, considering it's not actually DC.
(But four "Irish pubs" within about five blocks? C'mon.)
From the wasted money article:
"Vincent Morris, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city's contracting is "miles better" than it was before Mr. Williams took office."
So basically "We've made just enough improvements to say we're better than a crack smoking disgrace, but not so much that our political machine built upon corruption is at all at risk."
This isn't just waste; these no-bid and no-sign contracts are the currency of corruption and graft.
Oh, so they want to preserve Clarendon's "character"? Too bad most of it has either gone out of business or moved to Falls Church. My personal faves like Lazy Sundae and Queen Bee have all left this neighborhood. It would've been nice if Arlington had done this, oh, about 4 years ago.
On that note, I'm glad I recently moved too. I was tired of coming off the metro and being surrounded by lame post-frat assholes in baseball hats and squeaky-voiced girls on cellphones going to Mr. Days or Clarendon Ballroom.
Reid:
There's a serious effort underway to reform contracting. Much less of the questionable and/or fraudulent stuff is happening now. One of the unfortunate side effects of this is that a lot of stuff isn't getting done in a half-way timely fashion. It's just another mess for the incoming admin to clean up. The gov ops contracting and procurement team has recommendations posted on the transition website.
gotta keep an eye on the small amounts that are being wasted too. someone should check on anc 2c and make sure that the money they've authorized to throw at the ECCA isn't going into someone's pocket...
Ri Ra is prefab. I wouldn't have such a grudge against the place if it a) didn't have a cover and b) didn't replace a great old hardware store.
What's funny about the celtification of Wilson Blvd. is places like the bar across from the Navy League building (whose name escapes me, but I'm sure it's something like Patty McPatrick's) that used to be a gritty neighborhood bar, and now is a gritty neighborhood bar with a silly Irish name.
I'm just waiting for Whole Foods to change its name to Shea Sullivan O'Conner's Organic Irish Market.
Sounds like Clarendon is pulling the same bait-and-switch that DC pulled with Walmart: pull out all the stops to make the town business friendly, then pass zoning restrictions that limit the size of the business. It's a curious form of schizophrenia, where local governments want the tax revenue generated by mega-stores, but they don't want all the traffic and crowding headaches generated by mega-stores.
And at least some of those pubs are actually decent. How long before a prefab Irish chain like Fado or Sine muscles in and puts the others out of buisness?
I'm just waiting for Whole Foods to change its name to Shea Sullivan O'Conner's Organic Irish Market.
reid, you slay me.
If Metro feels like shooting itself in the foot, then by all means, open the stations at 8:00 am on weekends. Talk about a nightmare - not only for residents, but for tourists (who are a major source of funding for the area).
If Metro wants to hike the fares, fine. If they want to extend rush-hour times, also fine. But cutting back service hours is simply stupid.
I don't know the details here, but I wouldn't leap to the conclusion that money is being wasted just because they use no-bid contracts. Putting a small job out to bid actually costs money, since you have to prepare a legally defensible RFP, assemble a team to review proposals, and then deal with the inevitable challenge to the selection. Not to mention that the bidder will probably underbid the true cost, so the anticipated cost savings never materialize. No-bid can of course be abused, but it can be a tough call.
With all the weekend maintenance projects, Metro is barely usable on weekends anymore anyway. I'm a part-time user, and I gave up using it on weekends last year.
I understand the balance between having controls and have expediency. I am merely pointing out that money spent without contracts or with no-bid contracts is most often the same pool of money spent on graft and corruption. Thus, it is the "currency" of graft and corruption. Treating it strictly as a paperwork or "waste" issue overlooks the fact that money spent this way is often the only concrete evidence we have of pervasive graft.
demonfafa - "Post-frat" is the perfect characterization of what Clarendon has become. My friends now refer to it as "Little Rugby" (a reference to the frat neighborhood at UVA).
I too am looking into leaving the neighborhood. Post haste.
Considering the huge drops in gas prices over the last year I'm not surprised ridership on Metro has flattened out. It remains an agency that is undersubsidized by local governments and so has to rely on passangers to bear most of the costs. I like their idea of pushing riders towards SmarTrip cards, but hope they don't cut back on hours.
Why doesn’t metro consider closing down certain stations at night? For instance Do we need Archives /Navy open past 9 when Gallery Place is 3 blocks north. I am sure there are plenty others that can shut down without disrupting much. Also, less station stops mean faster train times!
RJ - When I recommended shuttering the RFK Stadium stop, either parttime or permanently, I was likened to something between bin Laden and Hitler. If I wanted to open an Irish theme bar, I could have named it O'Sama McHitler's. Every Metro stop has it's own little feifdom of users. I can easily see the Gallery Place crowd rending garments and gnashing teeth over the suggestion that any stops near their neighborhood be downsized.
It's hard enough getting people to use Metro, let alone walk another 3 blocks.
RJ - When I recommended shuttering the RFK Stadium stop, either parttime or permanently, I was likened to something between bin Laden and Hitler. If I wanted to open an Irish theme bar, I could have named it O'Sama McHitler's. Every Metro stop has it's own little feifdom of users. I can easily see the Gallery Place crowd rending garments and gnashing teeth over the suggestion that any stops near their neighborhood be downsized.
It's hard enough getting people to use Metro, let alone walk another 3 blocks.
I've lived in DC 6 years and I've never had any reason to go to Clarendon. I don't even know how to drive there.
If I recall the rules correctly, anything over 10K must be competitively bid, and anything over 100K must be reviewed by the DC Council. Can anyone fact-check me on that?
Mark there are plenty of loopholes to get around those requirements. For instance, they often break large contracts into smaller ones that don't need council approval. And also, they just plain ignore the rule. Dan Keating has written a whole series of articles in the Post over the last couple years demostrating how incredibly abused the system is.
Generally the government officials respond, like you, that the worst of it is over, and these issues are being addressed. But yet Williams lets the procurement office be run by an inexperienced deputy mayor for two years. I don't know Mr. Tillery, so I won't say that it was the wolf tending to the sheep, but it sure wasn't the shepard. In a town with a history of graft and kickbacks, to have anything but the best government servant watching over the treasury seems at best incompetent, and at worst complicit.
I'm sure Williams wouldn't have let that vacancy last so long had it been in his travel office.
It's Kitty O'Shea's, formerly Joseph's Bar & Grill. Food's not bad, and it's always nice to have a dive near by (my favorite actually being Jay's).
And for the snots who like to conspicuously not go to Clarendon - great! You're missing some great little venues in the Galaxy Hut and Iota, though.
Ri Ra is so very not worth the loss of VA Hardware (which shut down of its own accord - no outside pressure there). I've been in once, to see what they did with the space. Nice, but I'll not be going back.
As to Lazy Sundae, I now understand why the landlord wouldn't say why he wasn't renewing the lease - he's given it to their neighbors, Mexicali Blues. Ouch.
And finally, I'm glad to see that stupid Mama Quan's Whatever thing didn't last. We love you, Whitlow's (owner of Mama Quan's), but WTF? We need LESS of that crap, not more.
Thus concludes the Clarendon Report.
I now understand why the landlord wouldn't say why he wasn't renewing the lease ...
Beach Shack, too. The attitude of the owners, as far as I could tell, was that they simply didn't like the character of the neighborhood. So they picked up and moved to an out-of-the-way storefront in Falls Church. Sad for Clarendon, but really sad for LS & BS.
Reid:
Sure there are ways around the requirements I mentioned, and city money is a great incentive to find them. But there has to be a better way to minimize the risk of being ripped off without so slowing projects that the contracting portion alone takes over a year.
I'm not suggesting DC loosen the reins, but, with OCP's current state, they cannot even regularly process a contract before the FY dollars revert back to the general fund. I’ve seen it take almost an entire FY just to put out a RFP- even with a councilmember’s strong support. I suppose I'm just noting that things are so scrutinized at OCP that a lot of needed (and budgeted for!) projects are not getting done for contracting reasons, like rebuilding rec centers or repaving crappy alleys.
MB, I want to like Galaxy Hut. I really do. Except that whenever I go there, it's so friggin' hard to get a table because the place is always so jam-packed with snooty indie rockers who seemed to have arrived and sat down at a table the moment the place opened. They have decent bar food and great beers on tap, except that the likes of me don't seem to be too welcome there.
Well the tide of restaurant-killing rising rents has struck downtown. Apparently Red Sage will close next week.
Can't say I loved Red Sage, but they did a monster amount of business, what tenant is waiting who can do better? Granted, they had a huge space, and perhaps it will get broken up. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a bank, a starbucks, and a T-mobile store!
I guess this probably reflects the intensity of competition between downtown restaurants now and perhaps the fact that the center of downtown gravity has shifted way east of Red Sage.
Red Sage died because of rising rents? Do you know what it rose to per square foot? I also wonder what could do better in that space. Maybe a better eats place or a trendy club of some sort.
Who's your favorite Kennedy?
How'd we ever get so sheik?
What's the flavor of the week?
I live next to Fugazi